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The 13th annual International Animal Rights Gathering took place from July 15-17 2011 in the Netherlands.
The 13th International Animal Rights Gathering (IARG) took place at the
anarchist camp site 'Tot Vrijheidsbezinning' (kind of meaning 'reflect
to freedom'), at the edge of the village Appelscha, the Netherlands.
With a full program of more than 40 workshops, lectures and discussions
and the presence of more than 350 activists, representing more than 20
countries, this event has been a joyful and inspiring moment for the
international animal rights movement.
The camp site offered great facilities, such as big workshops spaces, a
canteen, stage, toilets and showers and internet. Also, the neighbours
were as kind to lend us their field, which functioned as tent area, a
gym as workshop space and more toilets and showers. The beautiful forest
surrounding the site gave people the opportunity to have nice walks,
climb trees, play games or just chill out.
Food was taken care of by the international mobile cooking collective Le
Sabot. They provided everyone with three delicious meals a day. Their
service ran on donation fully, which worked out fine for everyone. If
your belly wasn't filled up enough and you were looking for some vegan
treats, you could have your desires fulfilled in the canteen, where the
kids of the bar group provided us with more than 400 cakes, tons of
sandwiches, heaps of burgers, litres of shakes and more snacks. Their
profit (a 1000 euro in total!) will be given to a animal sanctuary.
Thanks everyone, for this hard work!
The program offered a wide variety of more than 40 theoretical lectures,
practical workshops, campaign presentations, heated discussions and
recreational activities. Newly interested people could join the talk
about animal philosophy for beginners, other speakers thought us about
animal interactions and behaviour. Lectures on psychology explained the
reasons why people use violence against animals, why people eat meat and
most important, which factors make people change their behaviour. The
practical workshops differed from first aid for animals and AR-based dog
training to integrating activism in you daily life and living a
revolutionary struggle. Also, a series of workshops on investigation
campaigns gave people the opportunity to share their skills and
knowledge. The successful drop-in sessions for getting personal support
with computer safety and lay-out design work repeated this year having
been useful for many in Italy at the previous gathering. Furthermore,
different groups, like The Black Fish, Gateway2Hell, SHAC, the Coalition
Against Duck Shooting Australia and more, presented their campaigns.
Subjects ranged from veganism, animal entertainment, vivisection, fur
and many others. Discussions on organisation structures, which tactics
to use and how to present ourself as a political movement led to heated
debates.
A particular feature of this years gathering was the presence of
workshops and discussions about the connection of the animal rights
movement with other political struggles around the world;
environmentalism, the anti-nuclear struggle, sexism and gender identity
in our movement. Also, We tried to be real high-tech and had Skype
presentations, for example from Nick Cooney from the US, writer of the
book Change of Heart. This worked well to connect our movement even more
globally.
In between the workshops people sat down at the prisoners writing corner
and remembrance table, to think of those who could not be with us. Also,
organisations from all over the world presented their campaign material
and merchandise at the info market in open air. Although the program was
pretty full, there still was time to relax, hang out together, get to
know each other and have some fun during the speed 'dating' session,
football, activist survival game, movie screenings, disco and the
acoustic concert done by vegan singer/song writer Tes.
With the admission fee of 12 euro paid by every attendee we were able to
cover the costs of the site and needed materials. Also, different people
from far or less wealthy countries were being financially supported with
this money. This year we were able to secure the presence of activists
from Russia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Israel and Portugal! Lots of
countries in Europe, but also Australia, the US and even Indonesia were
being represented by the people attending the event.
Also, unwanted guests gained their way in. Thomas Michael Pedersen, a so
called 'security consultant' was send to the IARG by Kopenhagen Fur, but
was so bad at his job that he was kicked off the terrain on day 2. Right
after this, another suspicious-looking guy from Switzerland was spotted
quickly jumping in a taxi and leaving as fast as he could! Good riddance!
Apart from this incident the whole event ran very smoothly. Everyone
took their responsibility to help out during the weekend, and although
it was pretty busy, even the organisers had time to join some workshops.
Despite the bad weather, the atmosphere has been really positive,
especially during the disco/karaoke evening!
We strongly feel that getting together a group of passionate and caring
people helps the animal rights movement to reflect, reload and move on.
This weekend has not only inspired the activist attending the event and
the organisers, but also the people from the camp site and the cooking
crews. Their help has been irreplaceable and it's just great to see the
gathering has been an inspiring event for them as well.
We hope that everyone left feeling equally inspired for another year of
hard work and dedicated activism. See you next year!
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